Garmin 310XT for Ironman...battery/memory life?
I've been using my Garmin 310XT for about a year now and have come to like it quite a bit for racing. One unit for swim, bike, run, just wonderful. BUT, I've only used it for races up to a HIM (roughly 6 hours). With IMWI around the corner, I'm starting to wonder if the battery life is going to make it through the whole Ironman (which for me may be 16 hours).
Sooooo, anyone else out there use a 310XT for their Ironman? Did you use it for everything? And did you do anything "special" to the settings to help save battery/memory life?
I'm pretty sure memory life will be fine if I just clear the memory the night before the race. It's the battery that has me a little concerned.
Thanks!
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Will agree- getting the wetsuit over the watch is a bit of a challenge. But those wetsuit strippers are amazing!
- Make sure you have the latest firmware with the swim settings turned on as that will not only save battery it will give you a much more accurate distance
-Turn the back light completely off
-Turn off any sensor you don't have (i.e. if you don't have a speed sensor or footpod, set them to off so it is not searching for them)
@Yasko - yes you can change the multisport mode with what ever screens you would like. Put the watch into multisport mode and then go to each of the sports like you are doing a race and you can set the screens for each in the menu. While you are racing you can use the arrows to see the different screens.
I just pull really hard to get the wetsuit off over the watch.
I just got mine about 10 days ago, so I'll add a couple of my questions. Any guidance on lifetime athlete - does choosing this increase or decrease calorie calculations - does it impact anything else? I saw Matt just pulls hard to get the wetsuit off, but do people wear it uder the sleeve - ever any problems accidentally hitting the lap button when taking your wetsuit off?
Nemo - didn't see an answer to your 16 hour question, but that's one I'm interested in as well - that's one of the reasons I thought the 310 would work for me. I guess I could always pull out my old polar 625 for IM distance races, but the pace seems to be getting unreliable on the run, and I'm starting to depend on that being accurate.
One of the big improvements of the 310xt over its predecessors is the improved battery life. We have one that my son usually uses, and I haven't tested it this way, but it's supposed to be good for 20+ hours. I think mancona (as always) has good tips about helping extend teh life (i.e., making sure it's not looking for sensors you don't have). Another similar tip is that if you must wear it for a watch in the early morning, they run almost indefinitely with the gps off... you COULD run it for hours in the pre-swim morning with the gps off without draining the battery much at all, but then you do need to remember to turn the gps back on as the race approaches!!!
That is a really good tip and probably the best way to save battery since GPS is the . As you don't need the GPS to be active prior to the race.
Heck, if you don't care about measuring the distance of the swim and have a power tap or speed sensor, you actually could leave GPS off until about mile 100 or so of the bike. I would turn it on around mile 100 as it takes a whiel to acquire a signal while moving.
Basically the 310 becomes a stop watch for most of the day, but is already on your wrist and ready to go when you start the run.
As William said...the big key here is DO NOT FORGET to turn the GPS back on a little before you need it.
Sorry that I have been out of touch, I have been checking in here and there and focusing on other things; but I should be back to full swing in not too long though.
Anyway, Nemo, I did St George with the 310 and it was on for almost 17 hours with not problems what so ever, I think I even got another 3-4 hours out of it in the following weeks. I don't use it as the bike monitor though, I ran the Powertap through something else so I am not sure if that would affect anything.
But I had the GPS on the whole time.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Wei
I think you will be good to go just using it normally. Having to turn on and off the GPS out there on the road seems like a bad plan to me. I would rather just put it on in T2 if that were the plan. I say go for it. Figure if it is designed to go for 17 hours plus it is going to either last that whole time or worst case die in the 14-15 hour range unless the issue is unrelated to battery life in which case it does not matter anyway. You are going to be finished by then. Even if my estimates are off and If you are moving really well and it dies on the second half of the run it won't matter anyhow, you keep moving well. If you are walking in the dark at 15 hours and it dies it does not matter as it will be obvious that you are not going very fast and should go faster if possible.
The key use for the Garmin is to keep you in check early on in the run. It is unlikely that you will have that problem in the second half.
Mark- sooooo sorry to hear about the heat exhaustion. It was a rough day out there for a lot of people.
Firmware version 2.4:
Added Key Lock feature (Press the Mode and Up keys at the same time to turn on and off).
@bob - I think the info on the page will help you out.
I did use 15 minute alerts throughout the bike course as well and left the GPS Sattelites running the whole time. The Garmin lasted for the full race, and even ran a bit longer since I forgot to hit stop/off when I crossed the finish line.
After getting home, downloading everything, and then taking some recovery time. I pulled the Garmin out for a short 35 min run. It wasn't until I was downloading the data that I finally got a "battery low" alert.
So, I think it's pretty safe to assume it will last 16 hours. I'm not sure if it would go a full 17 though.